1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to spring making machine technology and more particularly, to a tool holder configuration structure for spring making machine, which minimizes the traveling distance of the tool holder panels and allows installation of a large number of tools in each tool holder pane.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many advanced spring making machines are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,166,786 B2 discloses a wire-forming machine, which comprises a machine frame, a wire feeder and a wire guide for transporting wire to a working area of the machine where the wire is processed by one or more tools. The tools are affixed on a tool plate on the machine frame and around a recess formed in the plate. A wire is fed through the recess to the working area of the machine.
In existing spring making machines, tools are carried on a tool holder plates and moved with the tool holder plates to process a metal wire into springs. The tool holder plates of a spring making machine are rectangular plates, having only one side thereof disposed to face toward the wire guide of the spring making machine. A rectangular tool holder plate simply allows installation of a limited number of tools, and thus, the operator needs to frequently replace the tools. Further, when multiple rectangular tool holder plates are installed in a spring making machine, these tool holder plates cannot be disposed close to one another to avoid impact. In consequently, the traveling distance of the tool holder plates is relatively increased. Therefore, regular spring making machines are simply equipped with two tool holder plates for carrying a limited number of tools.